Fatalism and Amor Fati

The notion of destiny has always fascinated me. I have gone back and forth on the potential existence of free will. Obviously, it’s not an empirically soluble question; but the experience of living has led me to more deterministic proclivities. Upon closer reflection, the problem with this outlook becomes apparent: if the future is ineluctable, and what we call “will” is simply one of many perceived illusory states of inevitably formulated causality, then what purpose is there in life or consciousness?

This ultimatum seems foisted upon all at some point or another and all seekers must inevitably face it. It happens to many youngsters in their development of adulthood. They look around themselves and don’t see any meaning in any of it; they ask their parents and teachers and get inadequate shit answers.

Some might accept these answers, at least to some extent, and suppress the gnawing curiosity. Such people, further down the road in their lives, end up having what’s commonly called a “mid-life-crisis.” The point being one must face this quandary sooner or later.

Many reject the answers from their elders, recognizing the oppressive despise they receive from those who’ve spent half a lifetime trying to berry the question only to have it prosaically thrown back in their face by the next generation. These youngsters, unable to ignore the apparently persistent nothingness, are vulnerable to fatalism, or the doctrine that events or actions are subjugated to inevitable predetermined fate.

Fatalists are inherently negative, as their resignation of choice or will stifles their creative self-expression, the very existential meaning of life. They have succumbed to the Taunt of Silenus; they wish they were never introduced to this prison of illusion, but since they are already here, their best option is to die soon. The milieu of increasingly disconnected ethno-culture also plays a large factor in robbing the youth of a solid foundation to rely on in these troubled psychological times. This is why suicide, depression, substance abuse, etc. are happening more and more. And yet, despite all the negativity, fatalism holds tight a certain kind of undeniable truth about reality, which makes it extremely compelling.

However, Nietzsche offers an alternative view. Amor fati is Latin for “love of fate” or “love of one’s fate.” In The Gay Science, it is spoken of thusly:

I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful. Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer.

This weltanschauung is not fundamentally different from fatalism except that it seeks to perceive what is as what is good; that destiny is ultimately beautiful, and thus our bondage to determinism is destiny’s way of reaching it’s ultimate purpose, so our lives are ultimately beautiful too. In that sense amor fati is diametrically opposed to fatalism in action: whereas fatalism is an existential resignation, a giving up, amor fati is an acceptance and reverence for fate as a cosmic ideal, and a striving to its highest cognizance. It is an extremely positive and logical way to live and any who struggle with fatalism should be introduced to this attitude so it can be overcome, transcended.

May all my völk love the amor fati and fulfill their destiny in this life: may we empower ourselves and build the bridge to the Übermensch!

Shayne